I have read every book going on productivity. Want to learn how to cultivate deep focus, or eat the frog or find the purple patches in your calendar? Speak to me, I am the expert! But yet I often found the same items popping up again and again on my to-do lists. The perennial tasks, projects or ideas floating around in my head, that didn't always make it into action. The physical manifestation of this was my spare room, where my clean clothes stayed on a vacation from the wardrobe for weeks (i.e. they sat in a big pile on our spare bed and never got put away!).
Basically I was a serial procrastinator. Procrastination is the process of postponing action (e.g. putting off doing something). I got away with it for the most part, as I am a really hard worker and I always have a lot of balls in the air. But I knew. I knew there was more I could do (especially in my personal life), if I could just somehow find the time and energy to do it...
Procrastination is one of the most popular forms of self-sabotage because it's really easy - Jen Sincero
The Benefits of Procrastination
A very kind and knowledgeable person informed me that a common bedfellow of procrastination is perfectionism. What??! I never thought of myself as a perfectionist. I had high standards sure, but I didn't need to have things done a specific way, or need people to do things the same way I did, so that means I'm not a perfectionist right?
Then this same wise person cottoned me on to the fact that perfectionism can also be about fear. Fear of starting something as you fear people will judge your efforts if they are not perfect, or if you fail. Ahhh.....
The reason I wasn't getting everything on my to-do lists done, was not because I didn't have the right systems or processes in place, but mainly because I was procrastinating due to my perfectionism. Ah dang.
Procrastination protects us from doing things that will:
Make us feel a bit of discomfort
Require us to deny ourselves things we enjoy
Require us to respond to emotions in a different way
Require a longer term commitment (the human brain tends to value immediate rewards more highly than future rewards)
Procrastination is our addiction to anxiety in lieu of action - Julia Cameron
Here's the good news to beat procrastination and up your productivity:
3 Simple Tips to Stop Procrastinating:
Just get started
The biggest hurdle to finishing most tasks is starting them. We often make things unnecessarily complicated for ourselves as we jump right to the end of what we need to do, and that feels so complicated and overwhelming, so we do nothing.
Instead try to start at the beginning. What is one step you can take now?
Recently I was changing around the layout of our upstairs bedrooms, making one of them into a home office. This meant planning, coordinating with others, buying new things and finding the physical energy to move things about. All my usual excuses not to do things (i.e. money, energy and time). So I started at the beginning. I listed my needed items, set out a budget and just bought them. Once they arrived, we disassembled and reassembled furniture. I waited for our landlords to take out unwanted items. Then I ordered a sofa. I did things in stages, rather than trying to do and know everything from the very beginning. Why? The best way to get s**t done is to already be rolling along - momentum is an astonishing thing.
Do the most important thing first each day and let the momentum of the first task carry you into the next one.
Limit distractions
Quite often when we procrastinate, we choose to do a different, but less important task to the thing we actually need to be doing. Like checking emails when I actually want to be writing a blog post. Not only does that kill time, but also focus and energy. What’s more, we feel quite satisfied about clearing our email and convince ourselves that we don’t actually need to focus on another task today, we’ll crack on with it first thing tomorrow. But it's fake productivity, as clearing emails wasn't your original focus, and it's unlikely this task will you move you forward in your life.
A couple of tactical ways I've learnt to limit distractions is:
Switch off notifications
Only check messaging apps, emails etc at set times of the day (rather than always having them open)
I retired my to do list, and created a power list. These are my "do or die" items everyday, and they're linked to goals (focused), rather than the act of doing (like a to-do list)
Put my phone on airplane mode. If this doesn't work, hidden from sight (e.g. in my office drawer), and if the procrastinator in me is being really pig headed, then in a different part of the house!
Only do one thing at a time i.e.single task (I know we like to think we can multitask, but our brain isn't actually wired that way)
Go for small and consistent, rather than big and grand. Think 15 mins a day, rather than dedicating a whole afternoon to something. It's much easier to be distracted when you think you have time. It's much easier to be laser focused, when you know you only have a short period of time.
Know your excuses (and do it anyway)
The love the Eckhart Tolle quote where he says, awareness is the greatest agent of change. When you know where in your story you normally lean into procrastination, then it gives you the chance to write a new story. Perhaps you clean the whole house, rather than go out for that run you promised yourself. Recognise that this is you procrastinating. And then, be an adult and just tell yourself to do it.
When you spot the bad behavior, you can call yourself out on this and course correct. Remember, your future self will normally thank you if you actually do the thing!
How to know when you are procrastinating? You:
Fill your day with low priority tasks e.g. like checking email
Leave an item on your to do list for a long time, even though it is important e.g project deadline
Read emails over and over and then mark them as unread
Everytime you go to start a high priority task, you end up going off to make a coffee, eat something, go to the bathroom etc
Wait to be in the "right mood" or the "right time" to tackle a task
I hope these 3 simple tips will help anyone who struggles with procrastination. They have definitely helped me, and I love the sense of satisfaction I now get when I power through my power list. And the focused tasks I work on, really move the needle for me. Now that is the more like the story I want to be writing!
Is it ironic that I'm procrastinating while reading this?
Thanks for the post, these tips are going to be helpful :D